I was sure Cowen was telling us this as a preliminary to leaving. No, they said, they just wanted us to know what was happening. If Vocal Tec wouldn’t relent, they could do the deal without Cowen. Joe, Maria, and Lisa (the banker on the deal) were proving a lot more loyal than I’d hoped. (Vocal Tec didn’t relent, despite hours of my pleading with Vocal Tec’s chairman not to hurt Cowen just out of spite. In the end, they replaced Cowen with Lehman Brothers, did the deal, and shortly after, their stock collapsed.)

Shortly after this, Cowen and First Albany’s commitment committees passed the deals, unanimously clearing the last hurdle for an offering. Montgomery had only to pass the deal on Friday and we were ready. Sure enough, Friday afternoon the call came from Montgomery. They were out.

Out! Not in. Now what was I going to do? I called the analyst. Yeah, he still loved the company. He just didn’t know till now what the problem was with the banker. But you can’t do a deal without a banker. I called Tom Weisel. I told him to talk to the analyst. He called me back later and told me to talk to his head of investment banking. I called the head of investment banking. He wanted to do the deal, but needed a banker. I called Tom. Our investor, the best friend of the vice chairman, called. The vice chairman called the head banker. The head banker called Tom. The analyst called me. Soon everyone was calling everyone. Eventually the head of investment banking promoted a junior associate on the deal to banker just to get it done.

The newly promoted banker came out to check things on his own, liked what he saw (surprise, surprise), and went back to the commitment committee.

This time the call came from the head of investment banking himself. “Tom just wants you to know we’re in. Great effort on your part. Thanks for sticking with us.”

Skadden told us, “This is the first time in a decade we’ve ever seen a commitment committee reverse itself. You guys are unbelievable.”

Of course, we knew if Montgomery dropped, Cowen would follow. “Bet you were pretty nervous,” I kidded Maria.

“Not at all,” she replied. “Joe was ready and able to do this deal on our own without them. But we’re glad you got them back nevertheless. The extra research coverage will be good for the stock.”

Were they really this loyal or was this just bravado after the fact? We’d find out sooner than we thought.